Glass Cockpit Introduced for Bell Helicopters

Bell Helicopter selected Chelton Flight Systems to provide a glass cockpit for the company’s light single-engine helicopters. The Chelton cockpit will be available from Bell for the Model 407 beginning in the first quarter of 2007. Until then, Bell 407, 206 and 210 owners can upgrade their existing aircraft to synthetic vision through Bell installation facilities or Chelton’s dealer network. Upgraded cockpit components will include EFIS, dual 8.33-Mhz digital comms, a Mode-S transponder, audio control, antennas and a 406-Mhz ELT with GPS interface. Other equipment will include forward-looking real-time 3-D terrain and highway-in-the-sky navigation; Class-B TAWS; dual embedded FMS; integrated GPS-WAAS; digital flight data recorder; solid-state air data computer; and strap-down AHRS.